Messages - Martijn dh

So the reason I haven't posted the last couple of weeks was because I was working om trying to get quick overworld done for the NCFC. This weekend though I decided to stop rushing and just skip this years event. It's taking far more time to tile then expected and some rooms are turning out pretty bland and uninspired (also and I'd have to cut a ton of rooms) so I'm just going to relax and take my time again. Btw: if anyone wants to help out with tiling let me know.

As for a sneak peak: check the attached images for some work in progress. And yes, I am working on a small light AND darkworld for this next overworld. They'll both be about 12 rooms large and compatible with the mirror item.

0.21.10 (13-28 oktober 2018)* Finished light world mountain tileset* Finished dark world mountain tileset* Finished dark world tileset* Made progress tiling a new overworld* Polished up the tilesets a little further

I was on vacation last week so there's not too much progress:- Still working on Cucco's. They're so much fun to play around with.- Now also almost fully finished with all the overworld tilesets (finally). This should be the last time I'll ever need to touch those again; fingers crossed.- Added a dropbox download link for the demo.- Made good progress designing the new (placeholder) overworld on paper. I'll likely make implementing those plans the main goal for the next demo, along with trying to improve performance further (as that now has the most votes in the poll).

0.21.02 (9 september 2018)* Dropped back from Gamemaker 2.15 to 2.14, because 2.15 capped the fps to 45 fps regardless of my coding solutions.* Screen size and positioning now saved using global variables (for better performance)* Removed various uses of the draw_rectangle functions for better performance

0.21.03 (14 september 2018)* Keypart of the HUD now always in front of screen transitions while in a dungeon area* Started work on extra idle animations

I might skip to show a more substantial improvement next year (and due to the organizer always flipping about errors in my demo's ), but if nobody else enters then I'll make sure that least someone represent this forum.

Please enjoy and be sure to post any and all feedback you might have, so that I can continue to make the game beter for you guys.As for the next steps: I'm still pondering on that. Feel free to weight in using the poll (that I'll add shortly).

Weekly update:Bugbashing is going great with a huge amount of extra issues solved, but not enough to call it finished just yet. There are still about 10 desert dungeon rooms to playtest before calling it quits. After that I'll stop the testing and just put up the new release.

All major and gamebreaking issues I've come across have now been fixed. There's just some visual tweaks left and some minor random stuff (like bombs shattering like glass instead of exploding if you get hit while carrying them).

0.20.15 (18 augustus 2018)* Spend the full day fixing the shock, darkness, warp and day-night scripting ( which I appearently all broke while improving their performance – whoops :S )* The context button now also shows you “open” tekst for doors (if you hold the needed key)* You can now also grab locked doors and keyblocks

Weekly update:Sorry, but no demo this week either. The more I test the more I find to fix or tweak. So the current state is that there are still about 6 issues on my list that are noticable to game-breaking (and about 20 that are minor to nitpicky).

What I did manage to do was improve the overall performance so that framedrops seem relegated to the largest / most heavily populated area's. (It's somehow quite fun to slowly chip away at such a large problem, learning as I go).

0.20.11 (11 augustus 2018)* Textures now increased form 2k to 4k (aka 64 MB)* Combined more surfaces in HUD* Optimized more tilesets so the game now runs on a single texture* Small optimization to enemy draw scripting* Made wall crash destruction more lenient, in how it's detected, yet again* Fixed visuals while stationary in deep water with upgraded tunic* Fixed issue in shock animations

0.20.12 (12 augustus 2018)* Slight improvement to enemy AI + drawing performance* Big performance boost to context button text detection* Tweaked tiling and object placement in Mansion Shed* Tweaked character collisions for performance* Fixed issue where you can continuously crash into a bookcase to move a key endlessly* Fixed a few more masking oversights* Fixed visual oversight in item menu* Tweaked fairy masking to make it less likely they get stuck in walls etc

Hi guys. So I was aiming to release this next demo asap but because I had more free time then usual I decided to first do a full playthrough as extra testing. Well... I got reminded of the scope of this game. Without testers some area's haven't been properly played in years and thus I found more bugs then I'd dare to admit.

So, basically I'll be taking more time to polish things up.

Also, performance at places has somehow become a slight issue on my machine (=some dips between 58 and 60 fps). I've implemented a series of improvements, but I doesn't seem to fix much as it's the black box GML engine that already takes up at least 86% of the resources. If anybody want to help test the fps on different machines, please let me know.

Yes, I'm using GM:Studio2. Basically it's nice software and an improvement over GM:Studio1. If you're a serieus user that spends time optimizing games and such then I would recommend it. Just be mindfull that it comes with a few quirks:- It contains annoying DRM where you have to log in (=2-step) every so often. On several occassions I've had to wait hours/a day for the software to recognize a reset password.- The move from 1 to 2 might require you to up some of your coding habits (like declaring arguments before use in scripts). It'll make you a better coder through, just expect some time investment there.- The software is constantly being improved which means every 6 months or so might find that you'll have to perform (minor) updates/optimization to previously functioning code.

As for my issue earlier today: I found more people having issues with this latest update so I ended up going back to an earlier version.

Go figure: I just finished the second to last issue I found and now my fps tanks to 45 (from 58-60) due to the latest GM:Studio update. Go figure I really hate these newer GameMaker versions sometimes.

Anyway, I'll need some more days to fix stuff. I don't suppose any of you have tips to keep the Gamemaker Finish_Frame engine processing value of games in check?

0.19.73 (26 juli 2018)* Fixed case of dissappearing staircase during water raising* Populated the dungeon with all remaining containers

0.19.74 (27 juli 2018)* Fixed some small depth issues* Populated the dungeon with last enemies

0.20.00 (29 juli 2018)* Finished area around the last of the cells* Made it possible to collect arrows from chests without a bow* Fixed blob spawning + added additional spawn state* Tweaked some more small tweak to the dungeon* Added extra state to default stalfos so they can now also fall from above* Fixed issue with Stalfos getting stuck in cell doors

Note that I have only had time to do final playtesting on parts of the new dungeon. If you encounter any issues, or have feedback, be sure to let me know. I love to hear your opinions so I can keep making things better and better.

As for directions: To access the latest new dungeon walk up two screens from the starting position. You'll see an added entrance in the wall in the upper left.

I'll provide more information when I can.

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EDIT: As expected (sigh) playtesting is yielding various minor bugs (and a few major ones). I'm already working to fix them (=8 of the 20 found are already resolved). Expect an improved demo in a few more days.

Well, do try to not get totally burned out permanently. I'm hoping to see this reach completion!

Those are goals that we share

I'll probably skip on the NCFC this year so I don't have to rush the overworld after this dungeon. That'll give me the freedom to just add whatever for a while. Like chickens! Or more idle animations. Stuff like that that's fun to add just because I can. Working on a single dungeon for so long ideas have been piling up again.